Trump’s Funding Freeze Threat Could Imperil California Wildfire Aid

SACRAMENTO, California — California Attorney General Rob Bonta assailed the Trump administration’s edict to halt federal funding as imprecise and frustratingly vague on Tuesday. But among the dozens of programs that could be cut, the state’s top law enforcement official pointed to one with certainty: money to help fire-scorched Los Angeles rebuild.

“We need it now. We needed it yesterday and without conditions,” Bonta said at a virtual news conference Tuesday with five other Democratic attorneys general, where they announced their legal challenge to the memo. “And it's unfortunate that it's being put at risk, not just from potential conditions being imposed by the president, but also by this memo.”

The order was temporarily halted by a federal judge just minutes before it was supposed to take effect, handing a win to nonprofit and public health groups who said even a brief implementation of Donald Trump’s freeze could cause devastating outcomes for people who rely on federal funds for services, as well as the workers who provide them. That will allow time for Bonta’s litigation to play out in court.

Trump’s freeze, which Democrats estimate puts billions of dollars to the state — and up to $3 trillion nationwide — in jeopardy, comes as the president and congressional Republicans voice support for attaching strings to disaster assistance. Aid to the state has been a top priority for California’s leaders in the wake of the calamitous fires that tore through Los Angeles this month.

“Donald Trump is illegally blocking hundreds of billions of dollars for essential federal programs to support families recovering after catastrophic fires,” Sen. Alex Padilla of California, a Democrat, said in a statement, which called for the Senate to withhold confirmation of Russell Vought, Trump’s pick to run the Office of Management and Budget, until the memo is rescinded.

That memo, issued by OMB on Monday night, calls for a temporary spending freeze on all federal programs “including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal.”

Though White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt contended that the order doesn’t apply to individuals who get money from programs like Social Security or SNAP, Bonta and other blue state AGs said they aren’t buying it. The lawsuit they previewed on Tuesday seeks to stop the memo from taking effect. And while Leavitt insisted the memo was perfectly clear, she wouldn’t say how long the freeze would last or exactly which programs would be spared.

The confusion, Bonta said, is the point.

“They could have written a more specific memo, that was tight and specific about what was included and what was not,” Bonta told California Playbook PM. “It is vague and unclear and they use a bunch of buzzwords.”

Bonta called the memo “dangerous, unprecedented in scope and devastating” as well as “arbitrary and capricious.”

Not only does it violate federal law and the separation of powers, he said, but has already inhibited the state from getting reimbursed for Medicaid services.

“We will not stand by while the president attempts to disrupt vital programs that feed our kids, provide medical care to our families and support housing in our communities,” Bonta said.

California officials were scrambling Tuesday to unpack which programs might be affected. The state is set to receive around $168 billion in federal grants and other funding this fiscal year — including $108 billion that runs through the Department of Health Care Services to support Medi-Cal (California’s Medicaid program) and other initiatives, according to state Assembly budget adviser Jason Sisney.

California also gets $7.9 billion for public schools, $8.4 billion for higher education and $6.8 billion for transportation, according to a report the California Budget and Policy Center issued after the November election.

Leavitt was pressed on specific cuts in her debut White House press briefing, and dismissed reports of widespread confusion over the scope and impact of the order.

“There’s only uncertainty in this room amongst the media, there’s no uncertainty in this building,” said Leavitt, just ahead of Bonta’s briefing with the other attorneys general. “The president signed an executive order directing OMB to do just this.”

Blake Jones and Kyle Cheney contributed to this report.

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